Path to Transcendence

Reinera POV

Reinera woke up in a daze. However, after a few moments, she was able to get her bearings. A quick glance at the room had her feeling confused.

The first thing she noticed was the enchanted barrier, isolating her in the stone room she was in. It was slightly damp and a little bit musky. As she slowly woke up the memories started rolling in.

She had been kidnapped.

She didn't know whether she should be proud of it, but this wasn't the first time she had been kidnapped before. It was somewhat of a normal occurrence at this point.

It almost made her laugh whenever it happened now.

Although, the most hilarious part about it, was that it wasn't even because she was a princess. The people who had snatched her didn't seem to have any clue about her identity.

This time it seemed these people kidnapped her in order to ransom her back to her noble parents.

The joke was on them though. How matter how much digging they did, they wouldn't be able to find what house she belonged to.

In fact, their inability to do so would only prolong her isolation until they were able to figure out who to contact. But it wasn't that bad to be fair. There was even an actual room and a bed provided for her, the last time she had been kidnapped, she had to sleep on the hard floor in a cage.

She didn't get to enjoy the quietness for as long as she wanted.

Several minutes after she woke up, she heard the door of the room open. And a man with his face completely covered entered with a confident stride.

Unlike her attackers, this man wasn't a Tier 3. In front of her stood a genuine Tier 4.

These weren't just common thugs at this point. Anyone who had a Tier 4 within their ranks were people with some kind of backing or connections.

"What is your name?" The man suddenly asked her. His voice was surprisingly soft. It was gentle like drops of water hitting a glass window.

She didn't say a word to him. The less information she provided the more time she would have to figure out how she was going to get out of something like this.

The biggest issue was that, unlike prior times, her family and their retainers weren't actively looking for her. They were still probably too busy finding out where she had been teleported.

Now, she was kidnapped by some unknown group in a town that she didn't even know where it was in relation to Heston. Not to mention, that they had already taken her storage ring.

The only person who she could hope would find her was Julius.

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Normally, relying on Tier 2 to help her escape from a den of criminals who were all Tier 3 and even a person who was Tier 4, would be a pipedream. However, she had learned better than to underestimate Julius.

A part of her wanted for him to save her, while another was secretly hoping that he wouldn't, it would be safer for him if he didn't. But she knew he would try. That was just the type of person he was.

The man kept on trying to ask her questions, but she refused to even look at him. Instead, she kept looking at the empty space on the wall.

The man didn't get outwardly irritated at her lack of response and once it became obvious that she had no intention of saying anything, he just left as quietly as he came.

***

Julius POV

After way too much pointless arguing, Elder Han finally gave in. It seemed that even whatever grudges he held against the royal family, weren't enough to prevent the old man from helping him.

According to Elder Han, this group operated out of several locations in Stonewall.

One of them was surprisingly, but also somewhat not surprisingly, one of the local lords.

However, Elder Han was pretty confident that they wouldn't take a kidnapped girl to the lord's manor. It would be too damning if something were to happen and people were to find out that one of the local lords was kidnapping young children.

Thus, Elder Han told him of the other locations she was most likely in.

As the old man was telling Julius in detail about the locations of these hideouts, Julius was confused. He asked the old man why he hadn't done anything about these people if he knew so much about them.

It wasn't like the old man didn't have the strength to do anything about it. Julius still didn't know just how powerful Elder Han was, but he was confident it wasn't an insignificant amount of strength.

However, Elder Han said to Julius, that sometimes it was necessary to keep certain criminal organizations in place.

The old codger's point of view was that there would always be some element of crime within society. It was inevitable. However, there were ways to control said crime. And in his experience, the most difficult times were when there was a vacuum of power.

This void prompted many other people to try and take its place. This led to lots of bloody conflict and unpredictable groups forming.

Julius understood it, he didn't necessarily agree with everything the old man said, but he could comprehend what he was trying to explain to him.

Sometimes it was better to have an enemy you know.

While Julius managed to convince the old man to help him, he wasn't able to actually get the old man to come along. That was a bit too much of a stretch.

It would have been easier, but Julius was just glad the old man had even helped at all. It really seemed like he didn't like the royal family. Julius could only imagine why that was.

"Which one should I look at first?" He asked himself aloud.

As he left Elder Han, he had to come up with some sort of plan, but there were just too many unknown factors he realized. So instead, he just needed to figure out where he would head first.

After some thought, he decided to head toward the closest one and set off in a hurry.

After all, he had a princess to rescue.

***

The first two were a bust. He wasn't able to sense anyone except for a couple of people random people hanging out inside.

The third one though, was looking much more promising. He had already sensed more people around than the other buildings combined.

It was an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the town. There weren't any houses or people living by. It was kind of the perfect hideout.

Julius took a lot of precautions. He paid extra attention to suppress his aura and any mana he was emanating. He also chose to wear an entirely black outfit. Face covering and all. It was at this time that he really missed his black face covering from Dante. The one he was currently wearing wasn't nearly as comfortable.

Perhaps, when he got back to Heston, he would ask the cranky crafter to make another for him. Maybe bribe him with some treats or threaten to tell his niece if he didn't. She liked Julius and would have his back.

He softly snuck around the warehouse, controlling his kinetic energy, so that each footstep was as silent as possible.

As he got closer, he was able to sense more people who were coming inside and out of the warehouse. There were at least half a dozen of them.

However, what really got his attention was the empty void he detected in the building. It sort of reminded him of when Dante removed himself from his spatial perception, but larger.

He suspected it was some sort of spatial isolation barrier, that prevented any teleportation.

It was kind of like the ones that were set up at Goldencrest, but this was way less subtle. But it also prevented Julius, from being able to sense what was going on inside of this space. And that was annoying.

While he hadn't been able to find Reinera yet, it would be a pretty good guess to say that she was within that barrier.

He needed to find out more about what was inside, which also meant he needed to get closer. So with mindful steps, he carefully snuck past the people and peeked around without being noticed.

Second time today that I am acting like a thief, he mused to himself.

When he got near, he finally saw what the barrier looked and felt like from up close.

It was basically an enchanted barrier that contained the entire internal space of the warehouse, with inscriptions running up along the wall.

His biggest problem was that he didn't know how he was going to get past the barrier.

He had no idea if the barrier would detect his presence if he walked past it. Although, he was expecting something like that, otherwise what was the use of a barrier?

However, there must have been a way for the other people to enter. Julius had seen several people walk through a doorway, that was covered by the barrier with no problem. The issue was how was he going to do it.

So for the next hour or so, he just sat in a dark corner and observed.

He watched as people came in and out of the barrier, with no issues. It was only after a very close inspection that he noticed something.

It was fast and he had been overlooking it this entire time, but there was a flash of mana the second they entered the barrier.

It took another several looks at it before he was confident, but once he was, he was able to see it clearly.

The moment these people would pass through the barrier, a charge of mana would activate from something within their pockets or on their person.

Julius suspected it was something like the access card to the rifts he got from Lord Lagos, but this time for entry.

Now that he had a lead of what he needed to get in order to enter, he just needed to figure out how he was going to get his hands on one.

The most obvious choice was to follow a person who was leaving and ambush them. Once he took care of them he would steal their access card and be able to enter on his own.

I guess I kind am a thief this time around, he realized with a chuckle.

He couldn't really think of a better plan, so that was what he went with.

Although he waited for a long time already, he would have to do some more waiting.

This time, he would be keeping an eye out for anyone leaving or anyone who was isolated.

Eventually, he believed he spotted his victim. There was a person who had exited the barrier and who was now leaving the abandoned warehouse, back to their home or to a bar.

They, like all of the rest of the people, were wearing black masks. That meant he didn't get to see their face, but he could tell that they were a female.

The fact they were a female made him pause for a moment. It wasn't that he had a problem with hitting women.

Okay, that came out wrong.

He was just surprised to see a woman involved in what is a kidnapping of a young girl. He would have thought that women had higher standards. Men were idiots, so he could understand why these men chose to be criminal scum but to see a female criminal scum was kind of unexpected.

Or perhaps that is just me being naive.

Regardless, he needed to do this. So he toughened up and mentally prepared himself.

Sorry in advance, but you have my friend and you're my best way to get her back, he apologized to the unknown woman.

So as she was walking away from the warehouse, Julius carefully followed her at a distance.